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ONE MONTH OLD!! • I love being cuddled all the time •
I love eating and I am growing big and strong •
I gained 9 oz in the last 3 days and am now 10 lbs 6 oz •
I have almost outgrown all of my newborn clothes and diapers •
momma and dada are sad that I'm getting so big •
I love riding in the car and in my stroller •
I fall asleep instantly in my wrap •
I hang out in my crib every morning and talk to myself •
I am mesmerized by ceiling fans •
I love my puppy June and when I cry she gives me
kisses on my head to calm me down • my sweet baby sounds
melt my dada's heart • I love my Mickey stuffed animal from Disneyland •
my red hair makes momma really happy! |
One whole month of life has passed for this little dude and we are besotted! You can read some of the fun facts about him above in his first month! One of the most fun parts of this first month was introducing Will to our puppy June! When we were in the hospital with Will, June stayed at my in laws house while we got settled in as parents. I knew June was great with kids, since she had a ton of exposure to Emolyn, Elsie, Jonah, and Nathan and just LOVED them, but she had never been around tiny babies before. I wasn't super nervous, but I will admit I was very curious about how she would react.
Aaron went to pick up June and bring her home and when she walked into the house, I had Will in my lap with my hands blocking his face. She had the chance to sniff and lick and get use to him without the worry that she would lick his mouth or eyes right off the bat. After a few sniffs, she generally was disinterested and wandered off to explore the rest of the house. We then put Will in the Rock n Play and let June get use to him in there. She settled herself right down next to it and was content to just be near him. I think June was more weirded out by me than by Will. I was different than how she had left me. June had been obsessed with me for the last couple months of my pregnancy and mainly obsessed with my bump. Since that was mostly gone, she didn't know what to do with me. I smelled different to her and mainly cause I smelled like him.
She didn't really like being around me for a while and mostly stuck to Aaron when he was around. But June and Will became fast friends with June often licking him when he was sad or just was in need of a bath. We soon were joking that Will was June's puppy and she was a very attentive mother to him.
After that first week of a lot of firsts, the days generally blended together. Day was night and night was day for Will, so we started trying to adjust him to understanding general sleeping patterns and when to try to get most of his energy out. Soon we had a pretty good rhythm and while he was waking up regularly at night to eat, he was settling back in right away and didn't expect to play or hang out much. He started giving us 4 hours stretched sometimes and since he was growing so well, the doctor told us we could let him sleep as long as he wanted and didn't need to try to wake him up to eat if he wasn't doing it on his own. This was glorious for us and allowed me to relax a bit with his nursing and sleeping patterns.
Will slept in the rock n play in our room right next to my side of the bed so I had easy access to him. It was lovely because I definitely had new mom jitters and would wake up regularly, even if he didn't, and would need to make sure he was ok. The Snuza Shawn and Nicole gave us for our shower was AMAZING! Not only does it promise to sound an alarm if it stops sensing Will's stomach rising and falling when breathing, but it also has a tiny blinking light that flashes with each of his breaths. So while I trusted an alarm would sound if something was wrong, it was nice to be able to see the blinking light whenever I wanted to.
Aaron still had his mornings with Will and eventually as the weather really got lovely in the morning, Aaron started taking Will out for walks while I slept in. He would bundle our little guy up in all his cute hats and warm blankets and take off around the neighborhood enjoying the fresh air. Will adores being outside and so loved taking in all the lights and feeling the breezes and hearing all the rustling leaves and sounds of the world around him.
We started also taking family walks in the evening. The walking helped me to recover from surgery and gain some strength back in my core and legs. Honestly though I would be pretty beat after just making it around the block.
We also started venturing out as a family for shopping and eating out! We did our first day out all together (that wasn't to the doctors) when Will was just 1 week and 1 day! We of course went to Target and then to Mellow Mushroom for lunch. I also did my first public nursing session as we waited for our food and crushed it!
Will also had his first bath at home after being out in all those public places.
The first bath experience was general traumatic for all of us (haha!). We decided to start with the bathroom sink for bathing since he just seemed so little for his baby bath tub. I put a towel at the bottom for padding and made sure the water was a good temperature. Will however HATES being naked and so while Aaron got him ready and was making his way from the nursery to the bathroom with a naked baby, Will pooped ALL OVER HIM! Runny baby poop too! We quickly wiped him up and put him in the sink bath and then he proceeded to poop all over the towel and muck up the water. It was ridiculous! Will would continue to poop every single time we gave him a bath, even if he had just filled up a diaper right before. It was his way of protesting his LEAST favorite activity of his little life. We eventually transitioned him to the baby bath, which was just as awful since he was so cold and miserable. It wasn't until well after his first month that he was big enough to just put in the bath without the hammock for newborns and he started LOVING bath time.
Other fun first month highlights included taking Newborn photos with Miss Sarah, celebrating Emolyn's birthday, and meeting Dr Schwartz!
There also were a lot of cuddles and moments of sleeping when we could find it. We took every advantage of the fact that Will was so tiny and could sleep right on us.
And eventually Will got use to bath time... and his favorite part of bath time, being the end when he was wrapped nice and tight in a towel and snuggled up with one of us.
Then sadly after 2.5 weeks of having daddy home with us to play and cuddle and relax as a family, Aaron finally went back to work on February 29th. Aaron was ready to go to work and regain the
normalcy of a schedule. We were ready to try our hand at what our every day would look like where we weren't essentially in "vacation mode", but I definitely will admit that I was nervous about having Will all to myself with no relief. Aaron had gone out for little spurts of time while he was off work, so I definitely had experience with just Will and I for several hours, but this was the beginning of our normal day in a day out. I planned a day where absolutely no one was planning on coming over and Will and I would do absolutely nothing but relax all day. We had had a pretty steady stream of visitors in and out of the house his first few weeks of life and I loved having everyone meet our little man, but the idea of a quiet house with just Will was a welcome idea. It hit me after Aaron had left for the day, that not only was Aaron going back to work, but I essentially was starting my new job too... and it was my DREAM JOB! It hadn't occurred to me until that moment that this was my first day of the job I had been dreaming of and longing for my entire life! I was finally a full-time stay-at-home mom!! I got giddy at the realization that this was the rest of my life! Then of course I documented it with a picture!
It was such a fun and sweet day... and pretty darn easy I must say. But even so, when Aaron came home, both Will and I were found fast asleep and ready for daddy cuddles!
Will and I eventually settled into a nice routine of walking daddy to the door, getting dressed and heading out to Dutch Bros Coffee for momma's iced coffee fix. Eventually our finances couldn't handle the almost daily gas and coffee purchase, even though I was able to work my punch card to a free coffee every other week. We ultimately invested in a cold brew Toddy in order to be more cost effective and I created a drink I liked a million times better than Dutch Bros.
Anyway, after coffee, we would sit outside on the patio and enjoy the fresh air. Will LOVED being outside! After we were outside for a bit, Will would be ready for a nap. Then after his first nap we would either run an errand or go for a walk around the neighborhood. Then momma and Will would both take a nap, then someone may stop by, but usually that would take us into the evening where we would relax and watch TV until daddy came home.
Will first month of life was so incredibly sweet and full of cuddles! I look back on everything and my memory seems to be soaked in a dreamy, fuzzy haze of baby smell and cuddles and sleep. It is so crazy that he is already so big, but I also feel like the pace so far is to my liking. Just enough movement forward and growth where I know Will is growing big and strong, but also slow enough for me to soak him in and revel in his tininess. I never in a million years thought that I would adore this stage as much as I do. I thought I would want to push forward and skip to the toddle age when he was more responsive and communicative and slightly more capable of doing things himself, but instead I find myself begging God to make Will the first baby to never grow up!
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